


There Were Dragons

by coneygoil



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, httyd3 theory, welcome to the angst fest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-13 15:36:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14751617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coneygoil/pseuds/coneygoil
Summary: He relives the same moment when his best friend leaves him forever...





	There Were Dragons

_Hey, bud._

_His dragon nudged his hand. Hiccup didn’t deny him a chin scratch. He leaned close, touching his forehead to Toothless nose, the dragon’s gentle warm breath on his face a comfort he never grew weary of._

_The air switched. Toothless lifted his head, attention caught up behind him as if something beyond the horizon called to him. Hiccup knew what this meant. His heart picked up speed._

_Don’t leave me._

_Toothless rumbled, his large eyes reflecting his best friend’s sorrow. He pulled away, taking to the sky before he changed his mind. Hiccup could only watch, frozen in his grief._

_Toothless._

“Toothless!”

A hand caught his wrist, and Hiccup’s eyes snapped open. His chest ached from the severe pound of his heart. His breath left him in ragged gasps.

“I got you,” a voice comforted. He was pulled against a warm body.

Hiccup stared blankly into the dim flickering light of the room. His gaze combed the room, ending on the spot where a stone bed used to be. A hand caressed the scruff of his cheek drawing him from his stupor, and he finally returned the embrace.

“He left again,” his wife said. She understood his dreams, because she’d had similar dreams herself.

Hiccup nodded, his cheek rubbing in response against her hair.

“Do you wanna talk about it?”

Honestly, he didn’t. He’d rather keep it bottled up, because letting go of the pain meant letting go of the one causing it – the one he missed with every inch of his being.

“It’s been months, Astrid. _Months.”_ Exhaustion saturated his words. “I keep reliving the same moment. When will these dreams end?”

Astrid moved to sit on her knees in front of him, the candlelight dancing on her face. “I wish I could answer that.”

His eyes averted off to the side as his chest rose and fell heavily. “I hate this. I hate that we lost our dragons. I hate that we have to live without them. That our children and all future generations on Berk won’t know what it was to have dragons.” He shook his head. “Sometimes I think it would have been better if we never had them at all.”

Astrid grasped his hands, leaning forward to catch his eye. “You know that’s not true. You wouldn’t give up a day with Toothless for anything, just like I wouldn’t for Stormfly, no matter how painfully it’s been. Every moment with them was worth it.”

Hiccup couldn’t stop his own tears from welling up as he saw tears pricked the corners of Astrid eyes. He released a shaky breath. “I know.”

“We’ve dealt with loss before,” Astrid’s voice was thick, and the words were strained. He knew exactly _who_ she was speaking of, and a fresh pang of heartache came upon him. “It will get better. I don’t know when, but one day it will.”

Hiccup reached out to rubbed away the tears on her cheek. “You’re so much braver than me. Thank you for being my anchor.”

Astrid gave him a watery smile. “You’re my anchor too.”

His heart had calmed, the pressure on his chest easing. He pressed a tender kiss to her forehead before enveloping her in a soothing embrace. He closed his eyes, focusing on the woman in his arms instead of the dragon that had left. He didn’t want to forget his best friend, but he couldn’t allow the grief to consume him. There was no perfect balance.

“I can’t forget him, Astrid, but some days it feels like I need to.”

Astrid pulled away. “You don’t have to.” Her face was alight with a hope he hadn’t experience in a very long time. “Write about Toothless. Write about your time with him. Write about everything that happened from the beginning to now. Keep the memories of the dragons alive. For yourself. For all of Berk. For our children and future generations. Keep their memory alive.”

The idea sunk into his veins, and he felt lighter. “That’s….that’s a good idea.” The inspiration was so sudden, it overwhelmed him. He had to let it out.

Hiccup found his prosthetic and left the bed, padding to his desk with the candle from the bedside table. He found a blank parchment paper and his charcoal pencil and began to write – to _not_ forget.

_There were dragons when I was a boy._


End file.
